The Night Teacher
by toothandnail
Summary: a post assassins creed  one  story about what altair could have done with his life. *note* it is NOT from altairs perspective!- please read and let me know what you think of it so i can better write consecutive chapters!
1. Chapter 1

It started out just another day, I went walking down town, bought a bit of food, talked with some people and looked at new weapons. I really have no idea what changed that made me be in the position I am right now. Where is that you might ask, well I just happen to be in the middle of Damascus with about the entire royal guard after me, give or take a few guards. Now here I am, running for my life and contemplating what kind of food will I get in prison. Not that I have any intention of going there, but a mind does tend to wander when it's in peril. Well mine does anyways. Regardless I continued running and dodging thanking my lucky stars that I was in great shape and not weighed down with any armor or weapons minus my greaves, which were a gift of my deceased father, and my dagger, which I tore from my deceased fathers body and killed the soldier responsible for deceasing him with it. Anyways my luck was really with me because I managed to elude them and hide for a few minutes. I climbed a ladder that I found and made my way to the roof of a building. There's nothing wrong with being on a roof, especially not in 1456. Seriously, the only reason it was illegal was because of the infamous assassin Altair who ended up killing all the important people in this city and her sister city of Jerusalem, not to mention Acre and Masyaf. He really was cold blooded, and the funniest thing happened after that, he disappeared. Just like that he was gone and we were allowed to get onto the roofs again. Although being an orphan and a rebel I always went on the roofs anyways just in spite of the soldiers. And because of that I knew the roofs of this city just as well as the streets.

"Hey you, you're not allowed to be up here" I turned around looking for the voice and I see an archer with his bow drawn taught ten feet away aimed at my face. "Get off this roof right now and I'll pretend that I never saw you." To be honest I was a little shocked and not a little bit surprised to be threatened by a soldier and especially because I was on a roof.

"What the hell man, it's a roof! Its neutral territory, I can be on here if I want to!" Without any warning he fired at me luckily just above my left shoulder. I freaked "hey man what's with this hostility? What did I ever do to you?"

"I told you to get off the roof. Now get off the roof!" I realized he was serious when he yanked out another arrow, knocked it and aimed right at my heart and yelled "right now". With that I started backing up, I turned slightly and just in time too. Something went flying past my head and I felt the wind as it passed. I heard a grunt and then a body fall, I looked back at the archer and saw him on his face with blood pooling from underneath him. Fearing an attack from the mysterious knife thrower I did what I always do; jumped sideways, rolled and came up looking for danger. But there was no one there, no one at all.

"Oi you," _Oh this is just great _I thought, another guard coming after me. I'd had enough of this I turned and ran, ran across the roof and jumped the gap to the next house and continued running even though the guard kept on yelling something at me I didn't regard him and just kept running. I jumped down onto a pile of boxes that were in an alley and then onto the ground. I kept running without looking back, I knew I had lost him a long time ago but I decided to keep running, it seemed to clear my head and gave me something to do without thinking about anything. I didn't stop for anything not the strange looks that were directed at me and then gone in an instant, not the shouts and protests that I didn't actually hear, I just kept running until I made it absolutely no where. And it was only then that I realized, I was not allowed to be here. This was the only part of Damascus that was deemed off limits to civilians and I was smack dab in the middle of it. I stopped running and decided to take a look around. Ok I know that wasn't smart but hey, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I decided to utilize it. That was my first mistake; my second mistake was not realizing that I was being watched by no less than ten royal guards before they spoke to me. Yes I said royal guards; I was in the middle of palace grounds. Not a place you want to find yourself at the best of times.

"Civilians are not allowed here" I whipped around and stared in horror at the heavily armed soldiers with their gleaming weapons and long pikes. I couldn't believe it; my luck had turned on me and in the course of twenty minutes went from being chased by soldiers to shot at by soldiers to being surrounded by soldiers. The captain (I think he's the captain anyways) spoke again. "Civilians aren't allowed here."

I swallowed heavily "Yes sir, terribly sorry sir, I will leave right now sir" I swallowed again.

"Leave? I think not street rat. You are going to the dungeons today." He grabbed my arm and I struggled in vain to try and get out.

"Please sir" I begged "please, Let me go it'll never happen again I swear it won't!" I begged upon deaf ears for he said nothing else just continued to squeeze my arm and drag me towards the castle. I will say that I felt pretty hopeless, but that was before I saw him drop from the sky directly in front of my captor. Who was he you might ask, well I was asking myself the same question all I can say was that he landed gracefully. He was wearing a white cape that flowed around him, he wore his hood up and only his mouth was visible. He wore a sword on his left side, a short dagger on his right and what looked like a dirk on his back. He had multiple throwing knives all across his person and I noticed that one was missing. I thought that maybe this might have been my earlier savior as well but I didn't contemplate that long as he began to speak. His voice held malice and anger which were both directed, quite clearly, at the soldier.

"Let the boy go!"

"No. He was caught trespassing on His Majesty's estate, just like you. Looks like you'll be coming with me too." The captain looked at his men and nodded and two soldiers walked forward to restrain this stranger. I saw him grin and thought him a bit queer. What man smiles when he's about to go to prison. Shortly thereafter I realized that he had everything under control as he started causing mayhem and destruction. The second one of the soldiers put his arm on the strangers shoulder the stranger started moving. He ducked his head and spun right dislodging the arresting hand, as he spun he brought up his left hand and rammed it palm open into the guards neck, blood squirted everywhere and I watched in horrid fascination as the soldier slumped to the ground still bleeding profusely. The captain swore and let go of me, I guess figuring that the stranger was more of a threat than I was, and jumped in the fray. The stranger jumped back, pulled out his dirk and leapt forward at the second soldier who had recovered from his shock and had drawn his own sword waiting for an attack which came much too fast for him. The stranger knocked the sword away and drove his blade into the chest of the soldier twice before letting him to drop to the ground and finally turning on the captain who lowered his pike and jabbed. I thought the stranger was finished but he moved with an agility I was instantly jealous of spinning left and grabbing the pike trying to dislodge it from the captains hands, but to no avail, the captain held on with grim determination even managing to yank it back from the strangers hands. He lunged again and the stranger had to back step to evade and try and attack. Finally an opening appeared and the stranger threw caution to the wind and launched himself forward in a desperate move which just happened to work. The captain, thrown off balance, dropped his pike and tried to punch his assailant but to no avail, the stranger blocked the punch and sent his left hand into this man's throat as well and left him gurgling his last few breaths as he laid him on the ground in a serene way closely regarding that of a passing friend, which I thought completely strange and backwards to what he just finished doing. The stranger took his left hand from the dead captains neck and I saw for the first time how he had managed to kill him with just his hand, there, covered in blood, was a knife of some sort which suddenly disappeared with a "shhhkkk" sound and I realized for the first time I was alone with this crazy killer and a thought suddenly came to me which I hadn't thought of before, he had told the captain to let me go. What does this stranger want with me?


	2. Chapter 2

The stranger turned and advanced slowly towards me. Wondering what he wanted was the only thing that kept me there, that and fear, he's a very intimidating person when he's all covered in blood. Anyways he stopped and held out his right hand which I took and he helped me up.

"Are you alright?" his voice held none of the malice or anger that there had been before. Now all it held was worry and something else, compassion? No that's not it, pity, that's the word. He pitied me, I didn't need it and I pulled away.

"I'm fine" I said none too kindly. "Why did you save me? What do you want with me?"

"You were in trouble, I decided to help"

"Well I don't need your help anymore so piss off!" I really have no idea why I was being such a jerk to this guy after he saved my life, was it the pity he was showing me? I decided to ease off a little bit; after all, he did save my life. "Seriously though, what do you want with me? Were you following me?" A thought struck me and it wasn't a pleasant thought, "are you looking for a pretty boy? Because if you are then look somewhere else. I am NOT entertaining you in any way shape or form!" I sure hoped he wasn't looking for a pretty boy because after watching him kill three big heavily armed soldiers I knew I had no chance if he decided to take me with him.

"No I'm not looking for a pretty boy, I'm actually looking for a student and you are the type of person that I am looking for." Now that confused me, he was looking for a student? He didn't look like a scholar at all and secondly, how was I student material? I'm just a kid. I wasn't sure if I could trust this guy but I decided to ask him a few questions first.

"A student of what exactly? Killing? Maiming? Because that's what you look like you're good at."

"I'm a teacher of survival; I help young orphans learn to survive on the streets alone. Some learn fighting skills and join the army but most become citizens and bankers and everyday people."

"Well then why did you come save me? There are plenty of street rats out there, why me?"

"Like I said before, you needed help. Everyone deserves a second chance at survival and you looked like the closest one to not getting that chance. I wish I didn't have to kill those soldiers but I had no choice. On second thought that could even be lesson one; introduction to survival. Anyone can steal some bread but it takes skill to get away, what I just showed you are the skills that you can learn. Agility, speed, duck and dodge. All of these are things that will help you survive on the streets!

To tell you the truth this sounded quite intriguing and I was quite interested to learn how to survive better, and get away with all the food I steal, not just some. But there was one thing that kept nagging at the back of my mind and that was why would he teach me things that are illegal? Doesn't he have any regard for the law? Besides I didn't even know his name. There were so many ways that this could go wrong and very, very few in which it could go right. "What's your name?" I wasn't about to go with this guy without at least knowing his name.

"Altair, what's yours?"

My jaw dropped at that. Altair, really? No way! He had disappeared and was presumed dead. There was no way he was here in front of me and offering me his secrets to survival. Well call me crazy, hell call me stupid, but I was NOT going to let this situation pass me by.

"How do I know that you are who you say you are?"

"You can't. But I want to help you so it's up to you whether or not you want to be taught."

I thought about this for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not I should trust this man who called himself Altair. "I guess I can try and learn a few things from you. What do I need to do?"

"First you need to give me your name, I can't exactly call you 'kid' now can I?"

"Oh, right. My name is Philip De Fontaine and I will gladly be your pupil."

"Great, first things first we need to get out of here." He turned away from me and started running towards the wall, no, UP the wall. As he got to maximum height he jumped as high as he could and grabbed a hold of a small piece of wood protruding no farther than 3 inches. He then braced himself and jumped again, this time backwards, onto a nearby roof. I lost sight of him for a few moments before he reappeared as a shadow leaping over me. I looked up and just caught a fleeting glimpse of Altair before he disappeared again. This time he came back to the roof edge looked down at me, grinned and said "You coming? The only way to learn is to do, follow me!"

"What? Wait, no I can't do that… ah screw it, he's not going to wait for me I guess." I continued to mumble and grumble as I tried to find a way onto the roof. Walked around the house and found a pile of boxes that I could use as a jump to get on the roof. I decided to try what Altair had done and ran towards it and as I came close I set my left foot against the boxes and brought my right foot up and placed it a little bit higher than my left and managed to actually get a foot hold on a box ledge and, in a burst of confidence and ingenuity, leaped to the sky reaching for all I was worth trying to grab the roof ledge. Needless to say, I missed. I fell to the ground but managed to break most of it by rolling.

"Not bad for a first time I must say." I looked around and saw Altair looking down at me with a teasing smile playing on his lips. "This time start with your right foot on the box and leap off the box with your left foot, that way you can use momentum from your right side to launch yourself into the air an extra 2 inches or so, other than that good form."

I decided to try that, I mean I almost had it last time I just got to do it the way he says it and it should work. Again, I started running towards the boxes and this time placed my right foot against the box. Instantly I felt a change in my posture, I felt way more sure of myself this time, I put my left foot on the ledge and, in one fluid motion, launched myself into the air, once again reaching for all I was worth but this time I knew I had it. I felt air turn to stone and closed my hands as I fought for grip on the roof. My body slammed against the side of the house and as the breath was driven out of me I almost slipped, almost. I managed to hang on by sheer will and determination. Slowly I pulled my body up and as I sat on the roof catching my breath I looked behind me and there was Altair with a big smile on his face as if he'd just won a prize.

"You'll do great!" And to my dismay he turned and ran, jumping rooftops and, seemingly, flying across gaps of nothingness. With a groan I got up and followed him jumping and flying much less gracefully than Altair had. The only thought I had was; _what have I gotten myself into?_


End file.
